i'm sooo disappointed and annoyed with this book so here are some things i wish i knew before reading (so i could've avoided it!):

- gender essentialism + xenophobia against scottish people at every turn (why? no clue!)
- lady macbeth being 17 (yes, it's historically accurate and i normally wouldn't mind but since this isn't a retelling based on history and ava reid chose to keep this and basically changed all the rest... weird idk)
- macbeth being reduced to a sloppy representation of patriarchy. he's a big, mean, and violent. ok...?
- lady macbeth being xenophobic
- lady macbeth lacking agency
- why is there a dragon?
- more hatred of scottish people (more specifically men) for no reason !
- where are the women in this book?

the worst part is lady macbeth's character assassination. there was no need to tie this book and this character to shakespeare's play. this wouldn't be lady macbeth in any universe, she's unrecognizable here. shakespeare's character has agency, ambition, and is a strong and bold character. she even uses gendered language throughout the play. she's a freaking powerhouse! what was even the point of these changes?

Spoiler

(reid's reimagining of lady macbeth's so ooc and lacks so much agency that the dude is the one to convince her to kill the king like what's happening???)

i truly wouldn't have minded if this story was completely separated from shakespeare's given that they barely resemblance those characters in the first place, but since this is a retelling and reid claims to be giving lady macbeth a voice only to remove her character's agency... this whole book's frankly insulting.

also, something that irks me here and in other books tbh: feminist retellings insisting on adding (sexual) violence against women that doesn't exist in the original stories/myths. sure, maybe there's a reason in some cases and yes, it's probably historically accurate here but this isn't this type of book (ava reid's pulling from shakespeare not history!), so i find this choice very off-putting in a book where they claim to be giving a voice to lady macbeth -- who already has it in shakespeare's work. why choose to add women's suffering but remove their agency?

and again: why is every single scottish person in this book described as barbaric, dumb, and uncivilized? it gets even weirder when you realize that the love interest (who's not great either but still) gets a pass because he's half-english. what. the. fuck.

this book is infuriating!!!!!!!!